Spider-Man "Spin-off" Venom Slated For 2018

Sony has marked the calendars for October 5th, 2018 to release the Venom spin-off movie.

According to this Tweet from Exhibitor Relations, a source for following the movie industry, Sony is planning to release the Venom movie in October next year. The movie is being touted as a "spin-off" but not much more is known about the project.

This could mean Sony rolls with classic Venom and makes a villain based movie, or perhaps they run with "new Venom." The new Venom in the comic book world is much like Spider-man, but he instead has to keep the symbiote under control. Losing control makes him become much like the villain we all know.

While Flash Thomspon is cast in Homecoming, the storyline doesn't seem to fit in with the timeline. The movie will take Peter Parker back to high school, where "New Venom" was set afterwards when Thompson became handicapped in the army. The suit helps him walk again.

Also leading us towards "classic Venom" is the fact the comics have returned to it with "new new Venom" where character Lee Price has taken over and returned to classic 90's style form. The animated TV shows also more commonly utilize this version of Venom.

An interesting theory also suggests that we may have seen glimpses of Venom already. According to this post on Reddit, the trailers from the upcoming film "Life" showcase shots from used in previous Spider-Man films. The theory suggests that Life, in one way or another, will be a lead in to Venom (or is Venom.) This isn't entirely a new concept as many studios have been playing with this idea lately, most notably Cloverfield which has hid two titles now disguised as other films.

Beyond that, the initial replies to the Twitter announcement are how I personally feel. We haven't even started the new Spider-Man franchise yet and already we are jumping to the most iconic villain he has. Why are we not developing other villains first? Or perhaps organizing the Sinister Six? It feels too rushed to me. I personally am still waiting for Mysterio to arrive, and we almost had him with the Amazing Spider-Man franchise until Sony freaked out and decided to reboot, again.

The calming part of it all is that Marvel is involved now, so there is hope.